Manufacturer expanding in Hamburg

An Orchard Park manufacturer will expand and set up shop in a vacant Walmart store in Hamburg.

An incentive package crafted by the Town of Hamburg Industrial Development Agency helped to convince Worldwide Protective Products to expand locally as the company was being wooed to expand its Wilkesboro, N.C. plant.

Wilkesboro gave the company a compelling set of incentives in 2011 to keep Worldwide’s second plant there. As part of the deal, Worldwide had to create 93 jobs and invest $2.5 million by the end of 2015. Worldwide has 165 workers in North Carolina.

Now, sales growth is propelling the company to expand its plants in Hamburg and North Carolina.

The Hamburg IDA directors are expected to hold an April 26 public hearing on the Worldwide package. The directors will likely vote after the hearing.

“Not only are we filling a vacant building – one that has been empty for five years – but we are helping a company expand here when it easily could have gone to North Carolina,” said Michael Bartlett, Hamburg IDA executive director. “And, we are talking about a traditional manufacturing project as well.”

Worldwide, formerly Manzella Worldwide, makes safety gloves, sleeves and arm protection devices used in industrial settings, food processing and by military and police. The company has 35 employees at its headquarters on North Benzing Road, Orchard Park.

According to plans submitted to the Hamburg IDA, the company will acquire the former Walmart at 4255 McKinley Parkway.

The 130,000-square-foot building will be turned into its manufacturing base and corporate headquarters. Some jobs from Wilkesboro may be shifted to Hamburg.

Incentives in the form of breaks on sales taxes and the mortgage recording tax, could save the company up to 20 percent in development costs.

Initially, Worldwide will occupy as much as 80,000 square feet of the former Walmart. They may lease the remaining space, or keep it open for future expansion.

The project carries a $3.5 million development price tag.

Founded in 1982, Worldwide has gone through a series of owners since 1999 when then-Manzella Knitting sold its “Perfect Glove” line to a holding company. Two years later, it was sold to France-based investment interests. By 2004, the company was re-acquired by local interests including its original founder, Anthony Manzella. Manzella, last year, sold the firm to another local investment group.

The store closed in 2008 when Walmart opened a bigger store on Southwestern Boulevard.

Buffalo Sabres’ forward Patrick Kaleta recently pinpointed the store as the site for a twin rink. Kaleta is now looking at a vacant Kmart store in Hamburg.

“For the past five years we were looking at this empty, big store that generated virtually no interest,” Bartlett said. “And, then we had two different parties express an interest.”